The situation
Planned domestic loads abroad after international deliveries
A Czech carrier from Plzeň delivers car parts to Ingolstadt and Lyon several times a week. Planners want to fill the trucks with domestic loads inside Germany and inside France instead of driving back empty. The operations lead has been asked for a one-page note the planners can use when they build next month’s schedule.
The rules are EU-wide but tightly counted: how many domestic loads, within how many days, after which delivery, and when the same truck may come back. Each cabotage run also brings the host country’s posting rules with it. The hours go on turning those rules into a check a planner runs before accepting a load.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Cabotage follows an international delivery
- A carrier with a Community licence may carry out up to three cabotage operations in the host member state within seven days of the last unloading of the international carriage that brought the truck there. The last cabotage unloading must fall within those seven days.
- Then a four-day pause
- After the cabotage period, the same vehicle may not carry out cabotage in the same member state for four days. The pause was added by the Mobility Package and has applied since February 2022.
- Arriving empty allows less
- A truck that enters another member state empty, after an international delivery elsewhere, may carry out one cabotage operation there within three days of entering, still within the overall seven days.
- Posting applies from the first load
- Drivers on cabotage are posted to the host country from the first operation. A posting declaration is required and the host country’s pay rules apply for that time.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Czech carrier with a Community licence delivers from Plzeň to Ingolstadt on Monday, unloads Tuesday. How many domestic loads can the truck do in Germany afterwards and until when, can it then do cabotage in France, when can it do cabotage in Germany again, and what must the driver carry?
You start with
Planned domestic loads abroad after international deliveries
- 01
Describe the routes
Give the incoming deliveries, the planned domestic loads and the dates. azta searches the EU road haulage regulation as amended by the Mobility Package and the German and French rules.
Cited research· Free - 02
Check the counting rules
Open the cited provisions in the reader to confirm when each period starts and ends.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Draft the planner note
Ask for a one-page check a planner can run before accepting a load, with what the driver must carry. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A one-page note for planners on cabotage limits and what drivers must carry
What you get
A one-page note for planners on cabotage limits and what drivers must carry
Planner note · draft
Cabotage in Germany and France: the check before you accept a load
Before accepting a domestic load. Check that the truck has unloaded an international delivery into that country within the last seven days and has done fewer than three cabotage loads since. The cabotage load must be unloaded within the seven days.
After the cabotage period. The same truck may not do cabotage in that country again for four days. Enter the end date in the planning sheet when the last cabotage load is unloaded.
In the cab. The driver carries the consignment notes for the incoming international delivery and for each cabotage load, and the posting declaration for the country. Drivers are posted from the first cabotage load and paid under that country’s rules for those days.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
24 minutes a month
At €70 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 22
- Capacity at your rate
- €1,512
- More cabotage planning notes a quarter
- 1.5
- Return on Pro
- 4.7×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoWhat stays with you
- Building the schedule and tracking each truck’s cabotage count.
- Enforcement practice and guidance in each country, which azta does not hold.
- Pay calculations for the posted days.
Frequently asked questions
- Does combined transport count as cabotage?
- Road legs of combined transport have their own EU rules, and member states may restrict them. Ask with the route and azta researches the rules that apply.
- Can it check one truck’s week?
- Describe the deliveries and loads with dates and azta applies the rules step by step, citing each. Tracking the trucks stays in your systems.
- Does it cover vans under 3.5 tonnes?
- Ask with the vehicle weight. The licensing and cabotage rules for lighter vehicles differ, and azta cites the provisions that apply.
